Petition pushes naming new Tappan Zee after Pete Seeger

An online petition urging state officials to name the replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge after folk legend Pete Seeger has picked up more than 2,700 supporters since it was launched earlier this week.

Pete Seeger bridged countless social divides during his long life of activism and folk music. And he spent decades cleaning up and protecting the Hudson River, which he could see from his home in Beacon.

Now, days after his death at 94, there’s talk of combining those two truths and naming the new Tappan Zee Bridge in Seeger’s honor.

In a letter Tuesday to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature, Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner wrote, “If the Tappan Zee Bridge is named for Pete Seeger we will honor a man who led the fight for a cleaner river. And, we will be inspired whenever we cross the Hudson to think of ways to keep the river clean and beautiful.

“A world-class new bridge should be named for a world-class environmentalist who made our region a better place.”

Since then, an online petition calling for a Seeger span has gathered more than 1,000 signatures. Naming the new bridge “would be a fitting tribute to a man who did so much to help improve the mighty Hudson and the towns along its banks,” the petition, started by a New York City resident, states.